Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The Contours of Cycling

2017 is definitely the Year of the Travel Time Map. For most of the world this means that there has been an outpouring of maps which show you how long it takes to drive to any location from your home. In the Netherlands however a travel time map for cars is a laughable proposition, What is needed instead is a travel time map for bikes.

Step forward nsmaps. Nsmaps shows you how long it takes to travel to anywhere in the Netherlands from any train station using only trains and a bicycle. Click on a train station on the map and you can instantly view a beautiful looking contour map showing you how long it will take to travel anywhere in the country.

The data for the train journey times comes from the Dutch Railways travel planner API. The minimum travel time for a location on the map is calculated by combining the train travel time from station to station and calculating the cycling time from the station (cycling at 18 km/h) using the route that takes the least time.